2017 Dividend Increases and Summary through January

This is something new that I want to do. Provide a monthly update on my holdings that have announced increases to their dividends for the month.

The first month of 2017 is looking promising. Through the end of January 2017, 8 of my 48 holdings in my dividend portfolio have announced an increase to their dividends for 2017 so far. This represents 16.67% of the portfolio. Also, my holdings in the portfolio will be reduced due to a merger of 2 of my REIT holdings. So the number of holdings in my dividend portfolio is decreasing to 47, so technically 17.02% of my holdings have increased their dividend so far.

For the month of January, the unweighted average of all 8 increases comes in at 6.5125%, well above my goal of seeing dividend income growth of 5% annually. My expectations for dividend growth from these 8 holdings was for an average of 6.2875%, so any slight over performance is more than welcome.

One disappointment so far has been Dow chemical (DOW). I was sort of expecting an increase in the first quarter. Sort of, because the merger with DuPont (DD) still has not gone through. Hopefully, after the merger takes place I’ll see that increase.

Late Q2 and throughout Q3 is where a lot of the magic happens with my dividend portfolio and the larger holdings in my account start announcing their increases. The remainder of Q1 should be rather quiet.

Stay tuned for a post coming soon showing my dividend income charted out from 2008 until January 2017. It’s a lot of data, but cool stuff to see how steadily growing passive income can grow with a consistent investment process. And yes, January 2017 has been the best month of passive dividend income so far.